I see some stash bashing in my future

Before I forget...if you haven't yet entered the Give-Away, go here (if you want, of course).

Now...to the future stash bash..

A few weeks I entered a give-away for this book...and I won! 

Thank you very much to Adrie at Fields and Fire for the generous give-away.  It arrived last night.  

I had read about it on a few blogs and was really quite interested in checking it out.

So, I thought I would share with you the first three projects I plan to make, since it is Three things on Thursday.

 First up will be this little gardening apron...once I saw it I realized I need a gardening apron.

Next up will be this hat, or something very similar.  I think my family will be happy to see a hat replace the bonnet that I wear in the yard (and maybe, once or twice, to the beach).  You see, apparently, my bonnet is embarrassing (to them of course, not to me).

And this little guy caught my eye.  I don't know who I will make him for, but I do believe that I must make him.  He's in the queue anyways.

What are you planning to make?

Yarn along on Tuesday, one day ahead as usual.

First...make sure you don't miss the GIVE-AWAY here.


Second...I realized tonight that I haven't knit a single stitch all week.  Oh, I have plenty on the needles (slippers, penguins, legwarmers, cables...) but I just haven't managed to get to it.  I have pulled out the sewing machine, and rearranged furniture, and made some pottery, but no knitting all week.  I don't remember the last time that happened.

SO, I decided the best thing to do would be to pull out the sweater.  The sweater that has been in a bag since last spring because there is something wrong with the sleeve.  There are at least three mistakes in it and it is both too big and too small.  There is nothing for it but to just rip it out and start again.  Hmmm.  I do believe if I leave it out it just might bother me enough to finally get to it.

No book today...I just went to the library and haven't decided yet what I am going to start with.

I'll be joining Ginny at small things for Yarn along so I am sure I will come away with plenty of inspiration and a good list of books to look for.  I always do!  Incidentally, am I the only one who takes a whole week to get through the Yarn Alongs???  I get there, but it takes me a while.

A Give-away!

It is time for my first ever give-away.  Are you ready?  Go!

I am going to give away one of my handmade necklaces to someone anywhere in the world.  It is an embroidered image of pink lavender (yep, pink lavender...I have some in my garden) on linen blend fabric, mounted to a slice of branch, and strung on a string of pink toned glass beads.  The closure is a button that fits through a loop.

Interested?  I am going to make you work for it - OK?

Here is the deal...I have opened an Etsy shop.  I am just learning.  Most of the feedback has been good, however, someone related to me by blood has told me that it makes them think of an old granny rocking on her porch.  Someone else has told me that a particular item should come off the listings because it brings down the look of the whole shop.  As I said, I am still learning so I am shamelessly soliciting your opinions to see what I should change.  For a chance to win the necklace above, here is what you do:

Go to my etsy shop "AtTheCrossroads".  Come back here and leave a comment with your honest opinion.  Trust me, nothing you say will hurt your chances of winning.  It will be a random draw but I would like a nice big pool of opinions to go forward with.  And heck, while you are there...for a second chance to win, either mark an item as a favourite or come back and leave a second comment telling me what your favourite item is so that I can see what people are looking at.  Oh, please be sure to leave a way I can reach you to tell you if you won.  I will draw the winner next week, shall we say Tuesday, March 13 and will post the winner shortly thereafter.

I thank you all for your help, and good luck

Brown Baggin' It.

I am back with my regularly scheduled programming of "Using What I Have to Make What I Need" this Tuesday.

 I made myself a new lunch bag for work.  And now that my son has seen it, he would like one to replace his lunch cooler.

 Because this (below) is the state my old one was in.

 I don't buy these lunch bags.  This one was free with a backpack that S got one year, so I have been using it.  The boys use nice sturdy small coolers for lunch.  Hard ones.  They have had the same lunch box since kindergarten and they should last all the way through to grade 8 without a problem, except, as I said, now S wants one like this new one instead of his cooler.

I had on hand:  one old linen blend skirt that doesn't fit, some leftover fleece from a Halloween costume from about 3 years ago (ideally I would have used wool, but I didn't have a piece that was big enough), and some leftover water resistant nylon from the year I had to make the boys some raincoats because there was not a single one to be found in town that fit.  Please, feel free to adjust the materials to what you have on hand that will work.

Cut one rectangle from each of the layers:  12" x 26.5".  Layer them linen, then fleece, then nylon.

I serged all around the 4 sides, but a good strong zigzag stitch may work just as well if you don't have a serger.  Sew down a nice seam along the top (one of the long edges) by turning it down about 3/4" and sewing along your serged seam.  Sew the short sides together, 1/4" from the edge (it's where my serger threads ended) to make a tube.

Cut one 6.5" square from each of the layers.  Layer them, and serge the edges.  Pin the bottom to the bag, right sides together, like this:

Sew along the bottom of the square, using the serged seam as your guide.

Ideally, I would have put grommets in the top to be able to thread something through to tie it closed, but I didn't have any on hand, so I just used this cording that was in my "bits and pieces" drawer.

This was the hardest part of the whole bag.  The rest was done in minutes.  I even had to use one of those little rubber grippy things made for opening jars to pull the needle through all the layers.  I will probably add grommets when this cord wears out, but let's just see how long it lasts, OK? OK!

And let's hop on over to Frontier Dreams to see what everyone else is "Crafting On" this week, shall we?
I'm also posting on Crafty Moms Share for Sharing Saturdays.

And, just in case you missed it...the Give-away is still open until Tuesday, here.

Felted Eggs

I am trying something new to me:  wet felting over a plastic egg.

 I still have plenty of sheep fleece in my stash.  I thought I would try to make something for the boys for spring.  They are getting a little old for the old "find the plastic eggs" thing, but I wanted to do something, so I am trying out felted eggs.

I wrapped a plastic egg in two layers of carded fleece, drizzled a little dish soap on it, and rubbed it and squeezed it and smooshed it around, alternating hot hot water with cold cold water.

After about 15 minutes, it looked like this...the plastic egg inside is the size of the one on the right.  I plan on doing this same thing in 3 sizes and then cutting an opening to get the egg out.  I will then blanket stitch around the opening, and hopefully they will fit on inside the other, and then I can put a surprise in the smallest one.  I don't know what yet.  I also don't know if they will all be white, or if each layer should be a different colour.

This one egg took a lot more fleece than I thought, so this should make a significant dent in my stash.  I will update as the project goes on...I figure I should be able to make one a day...and then wait for them to dry.  The one I made last night was still wet this morning.

Now I'm off to see what Crunchy Catholic Momma has going on for stash bash fun this week.  Won't you join us?

Yarn along and possibly a stash busting update

This week, I was really hoping to have finished my penguin project.  I really really wanted to finish them in February, as I self-imposed a deadline on myself.

Penguins in various stages of completion...

 I have 6 nearly done, although none have a beak on them yet...

...and I have the parts for two more (and to finish the nearly done ones).  I am currently working on the last two penguin bellies.  I had thought to make 24 of these for an advent calendar for my sister but these 8 took up my entire ball of black yarn.  Who knew?  So, as part of the stash busting challenge...

they sure worked,  but I thought there would be more of them.

I'm putting them away for a little bit, because my sister was right...I do get bored of making the same thing over and over.  I will take a break from them and come back.  

Oh, the pattern is this one by Linda at Natural Suburbia.  

The book is "New Treehouses of the World"  by Pete Nelson.  I picked it up at the library because it looked interesting and the boys and I have spent hours going over this book.  It has amazing pictures of amazing treehouses, like this:

 I thought it was a greenhouse, but it was built for communication with outer space.  I'm not kidding.

This is one of my favourites, because the second floor (the second floor of the treehouse!!!) has 4 beds in it, with lamps and drawers and it just looks fantastic (unfortunately I couldn't seem to get a picture of the picture).  If you ever see this book, check it out.  I promise you will be amazed!  Some have hydro, and running water, and wood burning stoves (in a treehouse!!!)

Anyways, hop on over to small things to join the Yarn Along fun, and check out Creating a Family Home just in case the stash busting update is Wednesday too.

Crafting on...

Twice in a row now, I don't have anything for "Using what I have to make what I need".  I seem to be spinning in circles lately, getting distracted by everything that "needs" to get done "right now".

Having said that, I will join Frontier Dreams for "Keep calm, craft on".

 The Green Man mug I worked on this weekend.

 S really likes it, even though it isn't done yet.

The only thing about using the studio at the college is the amount of time it takes to get something back.  It will be 3 to 4 weeks at least before this one comes home finished.  I am looking forward to it.  I  worked on another mug too, that looks like an eyelet fabric

It is based on this fabric...

Do you see it?  I cut this piece of fabric from a ballet costume I had when I was a child...I have boys, I don't think I will be needing the costume any time soon.  It was a skirt with a pair of bloomers underneath.  I have another piece for my bathroom curtain.  OOOH, does that count as using what I have to make what I need?

And for those of you who join me on Tuesday, there is still a little time to use the discount code for my etsy shop.  15% off purchases excluding shipping until the end of the month for my blog readers as a "grand opening sale".  Use the code GRAND2012.  For those of you who read this daily, I apologize for the broken record...I just wanted to catch those who come weekly.

What are you "crafting on" this week?

Weekends

On Saturday, our local nursery and greenhouse hosted an alpaca show.  N and I went to spend some quality time with these adorable creatures:

 I love the colour of this one above.

 The one with the face in the hay ate the whole time we were there...at least an hour and a half.

 N is loving these little ones...they were born in August.

 The one above was my favourite...just look at that face!

 This little guy above was born in November...N loved him too.

 ...but he was really smitten with this one...the friendliest one there, I think.

One of the women there showed N how to use a drum carder, which he thought was pretty neat.  And she gave him the carded wool to take home and make something.  He hasn't decided yet if he is going to make "another" ball for the cat, or try something new.  

Sandwich Wrappers

Now...Sandwich wrappers...for my Stash Bash.

I have been making these sandwich wrappers for years - originally just for my kids and myself.  Then some of the teachers at school wanted some, so I gifted some.  Then a few of the kids wanted some, so I made a few more.  This past week, I decided ours needed refreshing and I still had some material on hand so I made a few more.  I had thought about putting some of them in my etsy shop, but when I did a quick search, I realized that there are tonnes of them out there already...who knew?

They are easy peasy to make...

Cut squares of vinyl and squares of  cotton fabric into the same size...I like 11" x 11" but we have some smaller, right down to 8" or so for snacks.  With right sides together, serge around the edges leaving about 4" open in the middle of one side.  Turn right side out.  Pin your opening closed and sew around the edges at about 1/16" from the edge...on my machine that is right where the groove is to line up my fabric, so that is what I use as my guide.

Or...cut two squares (one of vinyl and one of cotton).  Put wrong sides together and sew about 1/8" in from the edge.  Then, pin some double folded seam binding around your outside edge and sew it into place.  That's the first picture at the top...

Or...if you don't have any seam binding...cut your piece of vinyl to the size you want your finished wrapper to be.  Cut your cotton so that it is 2" bigger each way (if your vinyl is 8" x 8" your cotton is 10" x 10").  Lay your cotton right side down.  Center your vinyl right side up right smack in the middle of the cotton.  Now fold over each edge of the cotton 1/2" and then 1/2" again.  Pin in place.  Start with the two parallel sides, and then do the two other sides to get nice corners.

Ta-La....all done.  I am going to make a few with some nylon left over from the year I made raincoats for the boys (yep...the year that there was not a single boys raincoat to be found in the city to fit my boys) to see if they are more durable cuz no matter how many times you say "DO NOT PUT THESE IN THE DRYER" they end up in the dryer.

The snack bags I made are lined with the nylon so I imagine that it will work just fine.
So for today...the stash bash...

8 sandwich wrappers, done...oh and not to worry...these are for me to take my lunch to work...I will not be sending my boys to school with these in their lunches :)  and a few for giving to the teachers at the end of the year.

Join the Stash Bash fun over at Crunchy Catholic Momma today.

Edited:  I forgot to include how these close up...thank you to the reader who commented and pointed that out.  The boys use a rubber band around theirs once it is all closed up like an envelope.  You just need it to hold down that last flap really.  I have seen them before with a velcro closure, but that doesn't work for us because the items inside are never the same size so we would need a million different sizes.  When I want to be fancy, I close mine up with a piece of kitchen twine and wrap it up like a present.  I have also, in the past, sewn a ribbon into the middle of the back (just tack it in place really) and you can use that to tie it up like a package when it is all wrapped up, but with the usage ours get, I don't think it would last very long that way....Plus, the boys don't like to take the time to tie it...a rubber band is the best solution for our family.

I'm also going to link up to Creative Friday on Natural Suburbia.

Linking up with The Backyard Farming Connection's permanent link up

Versatile Blogger Award

About 2 weeks back or so, Debby from cooking up a storm in a teapot awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you Debby!  Now it is my turn to pay it forward.

So, here is what I am supposed to do:
1.  Thank the person who gave it to me and link to their blog.  Done, see above.
2.  Share 7 things about myself.
3.  Pass this on to 15 new to me versatile blogs.

OK, step 2...7 things about myself.

1.  I love good food.  My favourite food groups are waffles, cookies, strawberries from the garden when they are still warm from the sun, a good cup of hot chocolate, tempura crab sushi,  and I eat "dessert" with my bedtime snack (usually a cookie, or a piece of chocolate, or some dried fruit).

2.  I love to dig in my garden.  When I am in a lousy mood in the spring/summer/fall, I just need to get out there and dig around for about half an hour, and everything is just fine.

3.  I am terrified of cancer.  I am terrified of my kids getting it mostly, but really, anyone I know.  It is just so horribly frightening and seems to be ever more common than it used to be.

4.  I have too many hobbies, and I think I have a bit of a tendency to go crazy with them.  I usually have multiple projects on the go all at the same time.  I am working on it.

5.  My dream is to have a farm some day, with bees, and ducks, and sheep or alpacas, and a huge monster of a garden.  I want to try to grow wheat to last a year.  I want to try to grow flaw to spin and weave into cloth big enough to make something even if it is just a coaster.  I have big goals, but don't know how to make it a reality with the price of land the way it is around here.  I want to build our own furniture with wood we chop down ourselves, and sleep under warm quilts.  I want to be an old-time pioneer.  For now, I do what I can in the city.

6.  I am boring, but I know it.  My idea of a great night is having a good dinner at home with the family, some crafting time, and falling asleep with my library book (because magically, the cleaning up and  chores would do themselves, you know).

7.  If I could go anywhere for a trip, I would visit the east coast of Canada, go on an Alaskan cruise, or possibly, if I ever want to get on a plane again (unlikely) visit the UK.

And now...to pass the award on to 15 new to me blogs that have a mix of recipes, crafts, gardening, family, etc...

Homesprout

April's Homemaking

Wabi-Sabi Wanderings

McGreen Experience

Heirloom Seasons

Mia Foley Art

Grace and Peace

a foothill home companion

The blissfully content life

I had a bigger list, but this last week, a bunch that I would have given it to already got it from someone else.  

So, I am going to add a few that are not new to me, but may be new to you:

Frontier Dreams

Crunchy Catholic Momma

Creating a Family Home

There are others I would add, but they already got the award...but they are on the sidebar of blogs I read.

If you have some you would like to share...leave a comment below.